Absolved, Resolved, and Dissolved
by alice-in-vunderland
Summary: Albus finds the Resurrection Stone in the forest. He raises Snape and his grandparents from the dead. They all talk of old times, and forgive each other. Oneshot. Please read and review!


**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and its characters does not belong to me. –tear-

**A/N:** This randomly popped into my head as I was thinking about the Prince's Tale. I always felt that Snape never got the resolution he deserved. He is actually one of my favorite characters. I love the "tragic hero" role JKR gives him. So I decided to write a nice resolution. It could definitely be expanded. It has expansion potential  Let me know if I should expand it. Please review, and happy fanficcing!

Absolved, Resolved, and Dissolved

Albus reflected quietly upon the cloak he was wearing. His father had given it to him.

"Use it well," Harry had said, with a wink. The other "family heirloom," the Marauder's map, had gone to James. Albus had been envious of James when he had been presented with the map. But he had been terrifically happy when he had received the cloak a year later.

"If I gave it to James, he'd wreak havoc on the school," Harry had confided. Albus quite agreed. He felt proud that his father had chosen to present the cloak to him. Albus suspected, although Harry never showed it blatantly, that his father valued the cloak much more than the map, and he felt proud that Harry had chosen to give it to him. Albus looked up to his father more than anything. People always told him, "You're the spitting image of your father." But Albus never felt worthy enough to be compared to the great Harry Potter.

He shivered as he recalled that his father had walked through the same forest that he was now walking though: the Forbidden Forest. He knew his father had only been in the forest because he had to, but Albus felt a connection to his father when he was in the forest. _Perhaps I'm treading on the same path he stepped through when he went to go meet Lord Voldemort._ That had definitely been one his father's most famous adventures in the forest. _Dad also saw Voldemort for the first time since his parents' death in this forest, too. He saw a unicorn. I wonder if I'll see any…I wish I could have known him when he was my age. His stories aren't enough. I want to know what his time at school was _really_ like. _Albus regretted that he couldn't just take a timeturner and turn it a couple hundred thousand times. He knew that they had all been smashed in his father's fifth year at Hogwarts. And anyway, it would be pain to turn it so many times.

He turned his thoughts to his own name. His namesakes had been two headmasters of Hogwarts, Harry told him. Albus had heard much of Dumbledore, how he was the greatest wizard of all times, and even Voldemort was scared of him. But no one seemed to mention the other, Severus Snape. Albus wondered what sort of person he was. He had heard from many people that Snape had been his father's tormentor during school. But then he had also heard that Snape had been in love with Harry's mother. Harry had refused to tell him the full story, always saying, "Maybe later." It all seemed so confusing to him. Perhaps it was because of his confusion that he tripped on a root and fell on his face. He opened his eyes warily, hoping he had not aroused any potentially dangerous beings. In front of his eyes, he saw a shiny object. He sat up quickly and stared at it. It seemed to be some sort of ring. It was very dirty, and Albus suspected that it had been sitting on the ground, by the tree for a very long time. He picked it up carefully, lest it have some sort of curse on it. He brushed off the dirt and examined it. He couldn't see very properly under the tree, so he moved into the clearing in front of him. A shaft of moonlight passed through the trees, allowing him to study the ring.

It was a gold band with a simple brown gem. The gem had a crack through the middle of it. Curious, Albus turned it over and over, still thinking about his namesake. He was surprised when a ghostly apparition appeared in front of him. The man who appeared was pale, but he did not look like a ghost. He had long hair and a hook nose. His mouth was turned down in an unpleasant frown.

"POTTER!" he yelled.

Albus flinched. _How can he see me? And how does he know my name?_ Quavering, he managed to ask, "Who are you?"

"Why, I am Severus Snape, Professor Snape to you. I should think that you haven' t forgotten."

"You're Severus Snape?"

"Yes, boy. Now stop asking stupid questions," he snapped, "why did you bring me to this world?"

"What?" Albus asked, confused.

"Potter, have you lost your wits?"

"But—wait, how do you know my name?"

"Of course I kn—" he stopped abruptly. "You're not Potter," he observed.

"I am Potter! I'm Albus Severus Potter."

"Albus Severus? Not Harry, then."

"No. Harry's my father."

"Like father, like son. Both troublemakers. Now you're in the Forbidden Forest, too." He shook his head, disapprovingly.

"I'm sorry." Albus bowed his head in shame, but his curiosity got the better of him. "I want to know more about you, and my father. I was named after you."

"Were you?" Snape asked, still looking slightly disapproving, but his voice had softened a bit. "Perhaps he wasn't so bad…" he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" asked Albus.

"Nothing. Just remarking what an insolent, arrogant boy your father was."

"But surely—"

"Insufferably rude to me, only of mediocre talent, yet he had that swagger like his father. Thought he was better than everyone else, just because he had a stupid scar on his head."

"Wait! My father _didn't_ think that he was better than everyone else. And he told me that you were the bravest man he knew. So he couldn't have been that bad."

"Did he…" Snape said quietly. He fell silent. Then he spoke again, "You know, boy, I always hated your father."

"Why?"

"I told you," Snape snapped, "he was incredibly rude, arrogant, and insolent. Seemed to think he was all that."

"But he wasn't rude, arrogant, or insolent!" Albus objected.

"He was!"

"Are you sure? I don't think my father was that kind of person."

"Maybe you were wrong then."

"I'm sure. What did he do to make you hate him?"

"What did he do?" Snape spluttered, "he did whatever he could! He lost me an Order of Merlin, First Class. He threw fireworks in one of my student's cauldron! He taunted me! He disrespected me on a daily basis!"

"What? I don't believe it!" Albus protested, still thinking the best of his father.

"Why did he do all those things, then? If he did them at all, that is."

Snape was silent. Albus was silent too, his big green eyes wide open.

"As a matter of fact, I hate you too."

"But why!" Albus asked, despairingly.

Snape refused to answer.

"Please tell me!" begged Albus.

Snape caved, "BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND SEEING LILY'S EYES WITH THAT NASTY POTTER'S FACE!"

"You loved Lily, didn't you?" asked Albus.

"What's it to you?"

"Did you hate dad because he was their son?"

"No," Snape denied.

"But you saved dad's life."

"Multiple times, I might add. Always getting in trouble that nasty little boy. Ungrateful, too."

"Then how do you explain my name?" asked Albus shrewdly.

"It was probably a joke to him. Besides, he put Albus's name in front of mine." But secretly, Snape was flattered that Harry had named his son "Severus."

"But he respected you."

"Is that true?" Snape asked, now more interested.

"Yes. It' s true."

"Bring back Lily, and I'll tell you. And mind you, no bringing James too. I won't tell you anything if you do."

"How?" Albus asked.

"Use the ring, you stupid boy! Turn it three times over in your hands and think of her."

Albus concentrated hard. He thought of the photo of his grandmother's wedding that he had seen in his father's photo album. He turned the ring over three times in his hands. Lily materialized, but with her came her husband.

"I'm so sorry, sir. I didn't mean to! I just thought of them together!"

But Snape ignored him. "Lily," he said, his voice cracking with emotion, "I'm so very sorry for what I've done to you. I've made bad decisions. And in the end, I lost everything. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Sev, I'm so sorry, too. I should have tried to help. All these years, of course I forgive you. I'm so sorry that I've hurt you."

"There's no way you could have helped. Once in the Dark Lord's service, one can never leave."

"Oh Sev, I'm so sorry. I can't thank you enough for saving Harry's life, either."

"No thanks is required."

James, who had been standing apart up to this point, approached Snape.

"Potter," Snape acknowledged him curtly.

"Snape," James said, "you've held on to this grudge for such a long time, haven't you?"

Snape nodded.

"Would you be willing to forgive and forget? I know that when we were in school we tormented you relentlessly, and I regret that. It was so immature of us, and I apologize now."

"Apology accepted."

"Now, this boy. You are Albus?" Lily asked gently.

"Er, yes. Grandma?"

Lily and James laughed. "I guess we are grandparents now. I just regret we cannot be alive to see you now. You've come a long way, son. You're just like Harry."

Albus beamed happily. He could not have received higher compliments. He knew that they had not just meant appearance.

Snape cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, if you must know, b—Albus, I only hated Pott—Harry because I refused to see who he truly was. I was too wrapped up in my jealousy of Pott—James, that I never really got the chance to get to know him. Dumbledore was right, after all. Although he looks like his father, Harry's true nature is like his mother's."

"Hey!" protested James.

Lily beamed in happiness. "Thank you, Sev."

"Can you tell me your stories?" Albus asked eagerly. He couldn't wait to hear Snape's story, especially. He guessed that he too, like his father, respected Snape greatly. Perhaps he had found a new friend.

Lily and James smiled fondly at their grandchild, and even Snape managed a twitch of the mouth for the child who shared his name.

"Of course," they all said at the same time.


End file.
